Art & Life of SwarDrawS

I always look forward for Friday night to watch Best Week Ever on VH1. The show is a bunch of comedians talking about current events of the past week. I am always bummed if it turns out to be a week they don't do it or summer hiatus.

Fortunately they aren't in summer hiatus yet cause tonight it was on. I like the show because it makes me laugh but nothing like tonight.

They were talking about a commercial for Vasigil where apparently they compare a female down below to various small animals like itching like a hedgehog and smelling like a skunk. Then they show a lobster and the female comedian goes, "I didn't know you can use that stuff for your vagina lobster, I have been using it wrong all this time" I just freaking lost it. I don't know what it was, maybe I just needed a good laugh.

Fortunately you can download their shows for free from iTunes. I definitely need to get that one for the iPod as soon as it comes out.

Tonight I started on Hollace's room. Painting that is. I cleared most of her junk out, took things off the wall and got the old wall paper border off. I was worried about that coming off but I sprayed the wall with water and it just came off in nice big slimy sheets. Tomorrow I prime the walls then we do the green and blue. I hate painting but it has to be done because her walls are atrocious.

I am on vacation next week, only 2 weeks after my last vacation. The job that was dogging me before my last vacation is still around and as intense as ever. The call went out that those around next week may have to work overtime. I feel secure that I left the file in good shape that my co-workers shouldn't have to do any overtime. It is the video editors that will now be doing the brunt of the content. I have a nice shell ready for them.

Posted by swardraws at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was in this rut before my camera broke. In fact while the camera was out, I was ok with since there wasn't anything I wanted to shoot. Then the camera came back and we went on vacation. I took some photos but I never expect anything brilliant from vacation honestly. We have been back for nearly 2 weeks and I haven't picked up the camera since.

Most of my frustration is that with the "found" images I see, I can't pull over or actually shoot them.

I need to sit down and plan a project.

This weekend we are painting Hollace's bedroom. I hate painting so I am dreading it. I am off all of next week and I want to get this chore done before Monday.

Posted by swardraws at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I noticed that the pipe coming into the house that transports gas was really rusted and looking bad.

Today RAW finally got to the pipe to replace it. First of all, I am sorry that I don't trust you on these matters, don't get so hurt. If you don't know what you are doing (and how do I know that for sure), the house could go kabloey.

I told him to do when Hollace and I aren't home.

I get home from work and he is in the middle of the procedure.

The pipe was worse then we thought. Scary worse but he replaced it and put the gas back on and relit the pilot lights.

It was when he lit the water heater that he ran into problems.

He could hear the gas but he couldn't get it to light. Eventually it built up that when it did light, it flash and he burned the hair off of his right arm, the knuckles on his left hand and scared the shit out of himself.

Posted by swardraws at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

doing not much. Just getting back to normal after vacation.

Hollace started day camp this week and now has a sunburn. I am a little miffed by that. Though I am not diligent about sunscreen unless we are the beach or pool, she has never had a sunburn before. They say to put it on before they get there and RAW does this and that they will reapply as needed. Hollace has been doing this herself. She isn't asking for help and on Wednesday they spent all sunny day at a water park.

By Friday she had too much of a good thing and that day promised to be another one at the pool. She wasn't feeling too good so she stayed home. She is having fun though and she has a new friend. Her name is Faylin or Faylyn or who knows how to spell it but I have been loving that name even though it kind of sounds like Failing.

Coming back from vacation I was dreading what was waiting for me at work. We had a big project and the co-worker who remains nameless here is on vacation this week so it all was falling on my lap.

It wasn't too bad and I made a good go on it and came far. Unfortunately the client isn't coming up with the content and this high profile project has a ridiculously intense deadline. Next week is promising to be hell. Then I am on vacation again.

This week during lunch I had nothing to do and instead of going to Walmart or sitting at my desk I decided to sit in my car with the windows down, the tunes up and brainstorm on whatever.

On my one wall in the living room I have a curtain hanging, no window, just wall. I was using it as a little photo studio or at least that was my intention. During my lunch time brainstorm session I came up with an idea to make "windows" with molding and strips to make panes then mount a 26"x19" photo behind it. Kind of make those curtains relevant. I can take my window down if I want to do a portrait.

I thought if it turns out well, I can make a bunch and sell them at art fairs or something. I thought it sounded unique but who knows, I don't frequent art fairs so who knows if they are well seen there.

We finally got the drapes up! I was worried they wouldn't be long enough so I mounted the drape bracket below the molding which turned out not to be a good idea since the center brackets wouldn't do any good. Because this is a big window I put in 2 center brackets like they suggested but then it became apparent that I wouldn't be able to close the darn drapes so out they come. I put one in in the center. The drapes are perfect in length but the width is a problem. They don't seem to close all the way and the shears in the back are 5" less wide. At this point I don't care, they are up and I am done. RAW is dissapointed. I then rehung the rings and gained 5" on each pane and now all fits nicely and all is happy.

My next project is planting flowers in the big red pots I bought yesterday. I am all about beautification lately You should see my brainstorm session on how to dress up the newly draped window. I am on the hunt for large round bulbs to hang. I guess I have to wait until Christmas for those (I am looking for red).

Posted by swardraws at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Went on vacation last week. We are calling it our "extended long weekend tour" We spent the week going to 3 different places we always wanted to go on long weekends.

We started out on Saturday going camping at the Indiana dunes. Originally we thought we would just go on Sunday when everyone else was leaving for the weekend but decided to try for Saturday. I went to their site reservations and after almost messing up by selecting Sunday instead of Saturday I realized there was only one site left. I grabbed it.

On Sunday mom and dad came out to camp next to us. Actually they called first to cancel the camping and just come to visit because they couldn't get their motor home started. They eventually got it going.

On Monday, Sherry who was also on vacation came out with her daughter to go to the beach with us.

Tuesday we pulled up camp and headed 5 hours out to Peoria Illinois. Normally Peoria isn't a place I would necessarily want to go camping but they have a wildlife preserve that we have been meaning to check out.

The state park we stayed at was sparce and very sunny (hardly any shaded sites) and noisy. The cicada! We found the 17 year cicada we have been hearing all the hype over. And they were kidding they were loud and clumsy, you could see them flying around and they would keep crashing into you. They are so freak huge. About 2 hours before sunset they would just suddenly disappear and all was quiet until 2 hours after sunrise when they would swarm again.

The weather was hot the whole week but the new camper has AC so we were ok for the most part. The nature preserve was alright, lots of bison. We needed to find a Walmart and drove around Peoria for an hour trying to find it. We laugh about it now because.....

On Thursday we headed out to our last leg of our trip to Galena Illinois. The state park (we usually like staying there to camp) was 30 miles away from Galena so we decided to go to a good ole fashion campground, you know with the pool and mini golf. All the sites are really small and cramped. Right next door was a Culvers and on the other side was a Super Walmart. If only we would of waited.

We bought a small gas grill and then spent the rest of the night assembling the darn thing. We didn't eat until 10:30 that night.

At the pool that first day I played in the water with Hollace but was ready to get out. At the moment I was getting ready to tell her this, a girl comes up and introduces herself to Hollace and asks if she wants to play. She turned 8 that day and was very outgoing. Hollace shied up. They play for maybe 1 minute before the girl moved onto another girl. I felt kind of sad but not too much after I noticed she only played with that other girl for 5 minutes before moving on. Hollace spent the rest of the time obsessed trying to get a bobbie pin out of the bottom of the pool. Since she won't go under water or get her face wet, that posed a challenge. I think eventually some little kid asked her father to get it for her.

The next day we went into Galena and walked the town and its quaint little shops.

Later that day RAW went with Hollace to the pool. They had a great time but that ended badly when Hollace went into the bathroom and couldn't get out. Instead of yelling for help or something she just sat in there crying until a mom and her little kid came in and opened the stall where she ran out. So traumatic. This isn't the only time she got stuck in a bathroom. I seem to remember a couple porta potties she got or almost got stuck in.

On Saturday we went into Dubuque Iowa but didn't really stay. We realized there was a hot air balloon race in Galena later that day so we drove out there to see where it was. it was 10 miles outside of town and RAW coped an attitude about going (he was the one who really wanted to go). Instead we went back to camp, walked to Culvers for an icecream treat then played some mini golf.

On Sunday by 9:30 we were back on the road for home. We were home by 1:30.

Posted by swardraws at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend was another curtain weekend. This weekend I finished the camper curtains. They are green, bright green. Once I got them in the camper I wasn't sure if they looked right. With all the work I did, they look perfect. They have no choice.

I finally got me a 20% coupon for Bed Bath Beyond so I could buy the scarf for the window I curtained last weekend. They don't look right either. I also got a longer curtain rod and put in some of those rings I got last weekend.

With the curtain rod I replaced, I put it in the computer room and put up the orange sheers I bought at Ikea a long time ago. I noticed on the package that it was suppose to come hem tape so you can cut them down (they were so dang long). They didn't have any. So I bought some hem tape and cut 2 feet off the orange sheers and the blue ones that are on the livivng room wall (don't ask). Funny thing was while I was wrestling with the sticky melty tape on the hems, my iPod which was on shuffle, played a Cake's song where they kept singing "I'm not fit to touch the hem of your garment". I wasn't fit to touch those hems. I hate all that sewing stuff but in the end all my windows are looking better. I can't wait for the drapes to come so I can quit thinking about windows.

Edited to add: I just went into the computer room and admired my orange sheers when I realized the other window needs the same treatment. I am not done yet, dang.

I pay attention to the time and how I am wasting it or not getting as much out of it as I should. I was up and busy all day yesterday and got a lot accomplished yet I felt I should of done better. All weekend I watch the clock go by before it is Monday again. Right now it is 5:00 on Sunday and I am all bummed because for all practical purposes the weekend is over. I got to quit doing that.

Also there are a lot of computer projects I want to do but I can't figure out when to do them because as I said in my last post, I can't stay up late like I use to and I just can't fathom doing them during the day on the weekends cause it doesn't feel like a good use of time.

Oh well, I got to change my attitude about time.

Posted by swardraws at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On a normal work night I stay up until 11:30. On the weekends I use to stay up until 2am. Then I backed it down to 1:30 because I felt anxious if I was still up until 2. Now I am too dang tired to stay up past 11:30pm. Dang, there goes my free time. It sucks getting old.

Today was Hollace's last day of school. They only had 1 freaking hour. This week I talked to the social worker and the school psycologist to talk about Hollace's Aspergers. In the questionnair, I rated Hollace a 65. 70-79 was considered boarderline and 80 and up was highly probable. The teacher rated Hollace at 80. One point less then she would of been boarderline.

I tried asking the school psy what the difference is between Aspergers and just being highly sensitive. She kept ignoring my quesion in the way that was implied to me that I am just in denial of Hollace's Aspergers. They seem to think Hollace should be outgoing and don't seem to take into account that not all kids are like that. I asked her if there is something I should be doing to help Hollace and she told me to get her involved in activities....like cheerleading! That was the stupidest thing I have ever heard. If Hollace could pass for a cheerleader then we certainly wouldn't have a problem would we. If Hollace was a cheerleader type then we would question what family she really came from. Hollace would freak if I ever even suggested she go out for cheerleading. I can probably bet that the cheerleaders out there would be the ones messing with the Asperger types. Not to mention how noisy cheerleaders are. We skipped Brownies this week because of the noise. I am sure the leader thinks it is because of our little talk about Hollace crying at every meeting. It is because it is too dang noisy for my sensitive kid.

Anyway, the social worker (who we share backyard boarders with after she moved into Haley's old house) will write up an IEP to ensure that Hollace can meet with her 30 minutes each week next school year.

There are the two goals the SW wants to work with Hollace on.
• getting in touch with her emotions. Know how to express anger, sadness and frustration and
• learning how to make friends.

Speaking of anger. Hollace brought home her name card from school and I was looking on the back to read this: "I hate you, I hate you, yes I do."

I asked her what that meant and she didn't want to say anything at first then she said was very angry because her friends were ignoring her, acting like she wasn't there. Breaks my heart but that is kids. And this is the type of thing I want Hollace to learn how to deal with

On June 10th we go on vacation... I think. It occured to me that my camera might not get back in time. Oh yikes! According to the email it says it should be back to my in 7 business days (the 6th) but on their site they say 10 business days which would put it on the 11. Not good.

Then the neighborhood is having a big garage sale by the end of that week. This year we were going to have a garage sale but was really dreading the thought. This would of been perfect and that almost canceled our vacation right there. Then Angel, Hollace's friend is having a birthday party on the 10th and our drapes are due that week and the company picnic is during that week and ....

after looking at the calendar for the summer and the fact that my co-worker is taking the week after me off, there is no other week to take our vacation. And where are we going? I don't know.

Posted by swardraws at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)